


Unfamiliar Waters

by sunshinewinchesters



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Eel Merman Shane, First Meetings, Friends to Lovers, Hurt Ryan Bergara, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Shane Madej, merman ryan, now with art!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 19:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13464693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinewinchesters/pseuds/sunshinewinchesters
Summary: Ryan's a merman from a tropical clan and when he somehow ends up in off-limits, deep-sea territory, he gets himself into more danger than he bargained for.





	Unfamiliar Waters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voidbee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidbee/gifts).



> This is a merman AU made by the lovely and talented artist void-bee on tumblr! I'm just writing a bit of it for her! Go give her all the love for her amazing ideas and gorgeous artwork! :)
> 
> UPDATE: Gorgeous artwork done by void-bee!! 
> 
> Link credit: http://void-bee.tumblr.com/post/171494488516/for-allpoetsgotoheaven-who-did-a-fic-for-my

Ryan is entirely, completely, super fucking lost.

And the worst part isn’t even that he has somehow really wandered away from the waters near the ocean’s surface that his clan has claimed. With a growing sense of dread and foreboding, Ryan is beginning to realize that he must somehow, by some shitty stroke of pure awful luck, ended up in the deeper, darker, and much colder waters that are the territory of an enemy clan.

Yeah, he really _is_ lost. And apparently, considering where he is now, completely fucked.

Ryan exhales heavily and stops swimming for a second, curling his tail closer to him and turning slowly around in a circle to survey his surroundings. There are no bright, colorful reefs here, no tropical fish darting through the shafts of sunlight that breach the ocean’s surface up where he calls home. Everything is a lot more ominous here, all dark shades and shadows and unknowns. It makes Ryan’s heart pound harder in his chest, and his adipose fins ripple uncomfortably.

It’s so fucking cold down here, how does anyone bear it? The best idea would be to just start swimming up, because at least then he’ll be headed toward warmer water and away from whatever black hell hole he’s ended up in. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Better to get the hell out of dodge, even if it means getting himself more lost. Ryan’s about to pick a general direction towards the surface to swim towards when a distinct sense of warning prickles along his spine, sending warning bells going off in his head.

Ryan freezes, focusing on extending all of his senses out to pinpoint the source of danger lurking somewhere in these shadows. He’s scared to turn and look behind him, because what are the chances that it’s someone from this tribe who’s ready to stab him with a spear or something for daring to cross clan borders? Pretty much a hundred fucking percent, considering down here he is glaringly obvious, with his shimmery teal tail scales and neon orange adipose and tail fins. Ryan steels himself, suddenly extremely conscious of the fact that he has no weapons, and turns toward the spot behind him where some sort of black demon creature is about to lunge at him, no doubt.

Ryan whips around and raises his fists in front of his face protectively, like that’s going to help him any, and scans the shadows in front of him for movement, for his soon-to-be attacker. And, oh _shit_.

That’s a fucking _shark_. Not a person.

_Fuck fuck fuck fuck._

As soon as they make eye contact, the shark snaps its jaws in a threatening display of murderous, hungry rage, and rockets forward, coming at him from above. Ryan makes a strangled sound in his throat, adrenaline surging through him hotter than blood, and bolts in the opposite direction, headed straight down deeper into the freezing waters. His tail beats furiously behind him and he’s swimming as fast as he can, not daring to risk a look over his shoulder so he can see when those death jaws imminently tear into his tail fans.

Ryan’s always been fast, one of the fastest in his clan. He’d be foolish to think he’s faster than a shark, though, so he opts for creativity and swims between jutting out croppings of rock, hoping that will at least slow the shark down. It’s probably too much to hope that the shark isn’t small enough to fit through the crevices Ryan is able to. One glance up tells him he’s right; the shark is still following through the rocky maze Ryan is leading it through, albeit a bit slower than before.

It’s still not slow enough. Ryan’s getting to a clearing in the rocks where there will be no obstacles or shelter for him, and once the shark catches up, he’s a goner. Oh shit, oh fuck. He doesn’t want to die, not here, not like this! Being mauled to death by a shark is possibly one of the worst ways someone could go, and he’s literally seconds away from being this creature’s snack. Panic flares through him, tightening his chest even more than the icy water is. He can’t see for shit, which is another disadvantage that’s going to get him eaten, and there’s got to be something he can do, some sort of escape, and, and --

The shark lunges at him with a vicious, guttural sound and Ryan just barely manages to jerk his tail back under him in time, narrowly avoiding having it torn completely off by those razor teeth. The creature doubles back and shoots forward directly at him, and Ryan finds himself staring down the inside of its gaping mouth, the smell of rot and death on its breath, and there’s a dizzying moment where Ryan’s sure it’s the last thing he’s ever going to register. Some deep-rooted survival instinct kicks in and Ryan dodges just barely to the side as the shark violently slams its teeth together, and through the shock, Ryan realizes that instead of a mouthful of Bergara, the shark only managed to catch his right bicep with its teeth.

Though it was just a graze, the teeth were sharp enough to have opened up a deep gash, and Ryan feels his stomach lurch as his blood pumps out of the wound, creating a thick crimson cloud in the water around him. The pain his second to his noticing this, and it’s instant and blinding, sharp and burning all the way down to the bone. Ryan chokes out a pained gasp and frantically swims backwards, unable to see the shark through the growing cloud of blood obscuring his vision. His back slams into something hard -- some rocks or something equally as unmoving -- and the last jolt of adrenaline hits then, as he realizes in startling clarity this is it, he’s actually going to die, in 0.2 seconds he’s going to be fish food.

“Hey, you stupid shark fuck!” A masculine voice shouts suddenly from above him, and Ryan incredulously notes, his brain a million miles behind, how the voice sounds both cocky and amused, and not at all scared shitless like Ryan is right now. Ryan blinks hard, and then sucks in a breath as something shoots past him with a rush of force that tears sharp and clean through the water before plunging straight into the shark. “Gotcha!” The voice crows, and then a man swims down into view, only just visible through the barely dissipating blood cloud from Ryan’s still bleeding arm. In fact, Ryan’s wondering if he’s lost so much blood that he’s hallucinating, because the man has what must be a mile-long eel-like tail that just seems to keep coming and coming, and just -- what the hell? Who has a tail that ridiculously long? Ryan laughs incredulously, and yeah, the blood loss must definitely be getting to him.

The man with the eel tail plants one hand on the shark’s face while the other effortlessly pulls the spear free from its eye, and then he stabs it again with practiced ease, like it’s just another part of his day, killing something that could rip both of them to pieces in just seconds. Ryan’s gaping and he can’t seem to remember how to do anything else, he’s too mesmerized by the play of muscles in the man’s broad back as he gives the shark a quick death with one more lance of his spear. The effortless show of strength and power is unlike he’s ever seen from the warriors in his own clan and it’s both scary as shit and kind of captivating.

Now finished with the shark, the man swims over to where Ryan is still frozen against the rock wall, fingers wrapped loosely around his bicep in an unconscious attempt to staunch the bleeding. The man raises an eyebrow and smirks at him, fanning his eel tail out to show off its full length and the thickness of its muscle, and Ryan’s brain belatedly wonders if he’s trying to intimidate him or impress him. “Hey, you’re not supposed to be down here,” the man calls as he gets closer, but he doesn’t sound angry, or accusatory. He just sounds curious. Ryan’s scrambling to remember how to make his tongue form words, how to respond coherently, but the shock must’ve finally set in because all he can do is stare and swallow hard.

The man and his giant, long-ass ridiculous tail are now just a few feet away and he’s furrowing his eyebrows, a look of concern darkening his gaze as his eyes fall on Ryan’s wounded arm and all the blood still spilling from it and dispersing in the water. “Let me see,” the man demands, and Ryan tenses and flinches back, adipose fins and tail fans flaring defensively, but he has nowhere to go and the man doesn’t care. He just gently prys off Ryan’s hand and examines the gash, and that gets Ryan’s attention. Wow, it’s really bleeding, and there’s that pain again, and it hurts like a bitch. There’s so much blood, and everything is so red, and fuck, how had he not noticed how bad it was before. The man frowns, the full length of his tail rippling in concern. “You’re losing a lot of blood. We need to get you --” Ryan’s hearing dips out half way through the sentence as darkness starts encroaching on the edges of his vision, distancing himself from consciousness.

Ryan shivers hard, the coldness of the water permeating his bones, and he feels dizzy, like he’s falling away from himself. The man’s eyes are on his, and he’s saying something in a more urgent tone now, but Ryan can’t hear it over the roar of blood in his ears. He blinks and the blackness behind his eyes rises up and pulls him under, and then he’s just floating in darkness.

 

 

 


End file.
